All posts tagged ‘dinosaurs’

I have to worry about any episode whose title is such an obvious parody — just to make sure we’re on the same page, I’m talking about Snakes on a Plane — since this usually means the story was conceived under the guidance of intoxicating substances. I can just see the writer down at the pub with his mates after a few pints thinking that this is a brilliant idea. But at least the Doctor never said “I’m tired of these mutha-f*ing dinosaurs on this mutha-f*ing spaceship!” I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time.

SPOILER ALERT***

While this episode is not the best Doctor Who — not even the best so far this season — the sophomore season seven episode is a lot of fun with lots of great characters — The Doctor’s new “Gang” — starting with Queen Neferiti (of Egypt 1334 B.C., in case you were wondering). Continue Reading “Doctor Who Recap: “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship”” »

In case you were wondering, yes, that is in fact a dinosaur with laser guns.

What’s included: eight faction decks and one deck of bases. (Click to enlarge)

Overview: Robots, pirates, dinosaurs, wizards, and more! Pick two factions, smash them together, and then attempt to take over the world. Smash Up (“The Shufflebuilding Game of Total Awesomeness”) launched at Gen Con this year, selling out the available supply, though AEG promises that more will be available soon. It’s a quick-playing game that’s easy to learn and filled with humor and, well awesomeness.

Players: 2 to 4

Ages: 12 and up (though younger players should be able to handle both the gameplay and subject matter)

Playing Time: 45 minutes

Retail: $29.99

Rating: Somewhere between “just plain awesome” and “totally awesome.”

Who Will Like It? Here are the eight factions: Robots, Ninjas, Pirates, Dinosaurs, Wizards, Aliens, Tricksters, and Zombies. If that list sounds awesome to you, then you’ll probably enjoy Smash Up. If not, then you’re probably just not awesome enough.

Hopefully everyone who is reading this lives in a comfortable climate. However, it is hot where I live and probably where you live too. As much as I would love for my kids to be outside, exploring the great outdoors, most days it’s not happening. We must be pretty strict about video games as well (if my kids had their way, they would never put a controller down). So what do you do?

A few weeks ago, I mentioned a monthly product called Wonder box. You can read about it here. We also take full advantage of community services such as events at the library, science museums and our children’s museum. One common thread weaves through most of these things and that is art. Art projects are a parent’s best friend when it comes to keeping the smaller humans in their house occupied.

To celebrate the last remaining days of summer RoseArt would like to offer GeekDad readers a chance to win a few art kits to keep their geeklets busy. Simply fill out the form below and you will be entered into a random drawing to win one of three RoseArt bundles consisting of 3D Create ‘N’ Color Wooden 3 pack of Dinosaurs as well as a large 3D Create ‘N’ Color cardboard Rocket Ship! Winners will be chosen on Friday, July 27th, 2012.

Giveaway rules:
Open to US residents only.
One entry per physical address.
Must be 18 or older to enter.
A winner will be chosen at random from all valid entries.
The winner will be notified via the email supplied at time of entry.
Prizes are supplied by 3rd parties, and GeekDad.com cannot be held liable for items damaged or lost in shipping.

Thanks to our friends at RoseArt for providing these wonderful prizes!

Following their most excellent iPad app from 2011, Ansel & Clair’s Adventures in Africa, Cognitive Kid has now come out with a new iPad app, Ansel and Clair: Cretaceous Dinosaurs, as well as adapted their Adventures in Africa app to run on the iPhone. Both of the new apps are also lower in price than the original.

Image; Cognitive Kid

I reviewed the Adventures in Africa iPad app over at Common Sense Media last year, and of all the apps I reviewed there, it was one of the best done and most entertaining for its intended audience. The premise is that two aliens have arrived at Earth and want to learn all about the animals of Africa. They have also lost parts of their spaceship. You help them explore the Nile Valley, Sahara Desert, and Serengeti Plains, and take pictures, learning about animals and nature as you go, and finding their lost spaceship parts. You will see actual photos of wildlife, and learn the related vocabulary. You will also learn about different strategies animals use to survive, such as camouflage, migration, and diet. There are also several games and puzzles. By the time you’re done, you’ve explored several different regions of the continent, and have a better understanding of the wildlife and nature there. You can also have more than one user profile, so all the kids can play without waiting for the previous one to complete the game. It’s great for kids of all ages, because reading isn’t required for most of the functionality. I love this app, and always recommend it to others.

Now Cognitive Kid has converted the original iPad app into an iPhone version. You still get to explore the same areas, you just get to do it on a more portable screen.

Though I even have to remind myself of this fact, Nintendo’s fourth quarter releases aren’t strictly limited to Zelda and Mario titles. While those games have rightly earned the lion’s share of attention from both gamers and reviewers, there are actually a handful of other first-party releases that likewise warrant some space in the hearts (and holiday wish lists) of the Nintendo faithful.

Anyone who’s ever been into the children’s section of a bookstore will be familiar with DK Publishing, which puts out many kid-themed reference books and introductions to various topics. (To be sure, they publish grown-up titles, too!) Their most well-known book, at least among GeekDads, is probably LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary, which Matt accurately characterized in 2009 as a “bookful of awesome.”

But it’s getting more and more difficult to keep the attention of kids today, apparently. DK has recently updated some of the books in their Eyewitness series with URLs for further information, wall charts, and–probably most interesting–DRM-free (although not terribly high-res) CDs of clip art related to the topics, suitable for use in elementary- and middle-school-type reports or presentations. (Some, but not all, of the pictures are credited; DK asks that they not be put to commercial use. There is an unobtrusive link to the at the series website)

I have the Medieval Life and Flight titles in this series*, and they are both almost exactly what you expect: The DK Eyewitness series is as close an approximation of a museum exhibition in print that you are likely to find. For each topic–say, “From kitchen to table”–there’s a brief headnote to draw you in, and then a couple of pages of photographs or reproductions with detailed captions. The text of these books is basically the same as the last refresh–both are less than 10 years old–so DK clearly is hoping that the clip art will entice new buyers.

DK has also embarked on a more ambitious venture, a new series of digitally-enhanced books with 3D animations that emerge when certain pages are held in front of a webcam. Here’s a trailer for the first two books in the series, 3-D Dinosaur and 3-D Human Body*:

To get this to work, you have to download a program (it’s not really a “plug-in”), and then read the book in front of your webcam. On certain pages, you hold the book up, the webcam detects special encoding, and plays a 3-D animation. Some of the pages have multiple actions, which you trigger by covering and uncovering various sections of the page. This works best if you have a computer of recent vintage. It worked well on my iMac (about a year old), but the program simply didn’t install on our family’s 5 or 6-yr-old MacBook. It’s also a bit annoying that you have to download separate programs for each title.

I don’t think my 8-year-old and I have *ever* had more divergent opinions than on the 3-D animations. I thought they were . . . ok, and that having to have the book in front of a computer wasn’t worth it. He thought they were awesome, and that a little bugginess in getting the animations to work was more than worth it to see a dinosaur fight. He also appreciated the humor in the animations–in the screengrab at the top of the post, the animated T. rex appears to be recursively feasting on the Tyrannosaur pictured in the book, which is dining on an Edmontosaurus. Similarly, in the digestion section of the 3-D Human Body, you of course get to see food working its way through the colon.

The selection of animations in both books is clever. 3-D Dinosaur has animations about “Fossil evidence,” a “Tyrannosaurus attack,” the “Shock tactics” of underwater dinosaurs, “Fighting back” with armor, the “Air show” of crested pterosaurs, and dinosaur hatchlings “Breaking out” of the nest. 3-D Human Body features “Inside out” (musculo-skeletal systems), “Replacements” (reproduction), “Brain power,” “In Vision,” “Beating heart,” and “Food processor.” The 8-year-old and I agreed that the animations were more interesting than informative, really. Setting the 3D animations aside, the books are much like any other DK reference book, full of cutaways, illustrations, and relevant facts, but short on narrative.

The 3D books will definitely appeal to young readers interested in dinosaurs or the body. They are pitched at 10-12 year olds, although younger kids can still appreciate the pictures and, of course, the animations.

Dinosaurs have been a highlight of Boston’s Museum of Science for decades. The Museum’s original Tyrannosaurus Rex model was positioned in the lower level to place its head at your eye level, so it would stare at you as you walked in. A new, horizontally aligned model now towers over the permanent dinosaur exhibit in the lower level of the Blue Wing. (In case you missed that update from the paleontologists, the mighty dinosaur did not stand upright.) So the original model was moved outside to the Museum’s drive and stares down at the Duck Boats in the front drive.

As exemplary as this is, those of us that are unable to avail our kids of this wonderful and visionary addendum to the New South Wales primary school curriculum will just have to improvise. Fortunately, Walking with Dinosaurs will be touring Australia from late April to June. For more information go here. Remember, we owe it to our kids. And even if the Raptorapocalpyse does not eventuate, seeing this may motivate some of them to become palaeontologists in later life. And that is a good thing in itself.

The American Museum of Natural History is opening a new exhibit today called The World’s Largest Dinosaurs that gives visitors a new perspective on the giant sauropod known as Mamenchisaurus. This exhibition goes beyond the usual fossils and looks at the science behind how this long-necked, long-tailed dinosaur thrived for 140 million years.

Unique interactive exhibits will explore how these giants ate, breathed, and moved in the prehistoric world.

Highlights of the exhibit include:

The Mamenchisaurus in this display will feature realistic dinosaur skin, the first time something like this has been done on such a large scale.

Animations and lights projected on a life-sized 60-foot-long, 11-foot-tall sauropod model bring the inner workings of the digestive system and circulatory system of these giants to life.

The exhibit uses a rotating platform and strobe lights to create a giant zoetrope to explore how these immense dinosaurs moved.

A computer/mechanical heart pump challenges visitors to pump blood through a sauropod’s body. Visitors work as hard as a sauropod heart to bring blood through the long neck all the way up to the brain.

The World’s Largest Dinosaurs is the only exhibit of its kind in the world and is curated by Mark A. Norell who has been leading exhibitions in the Gobi Desert for two decades. Co-curating the exhibit is special guest Martin Sander of the University of Bonn, Germany. These gentlemen and their team have put together an amazing exhibit.

If you or your kids love dinosaurs — and let’s face it, who doesn’t? — plan a visit and see The World’s Largest Dinosaurs. For more information and to order tickets in advance go to The World’s Largest Dinosaurs Official Site.